Brazil – Free Practice 3: Hamilton Takes the Lead

Freed from the pressure of the title, Lewis Hamilton wants to properly celebrate his sixth title on Ayrton Senna’s home turf. The British Mercedes driver is certainly in the match. During his second batch of fast laps, he set the fastest time in Free Practice 3, with less than a tenth of a second ahead of Max Verstappen in the Red Bull. Both drivers love the circuit and should relish the qualifications. Ferrari, despite banking on the qualifying, seems to be falling behind. Summary.

The lights turn green at 4 p.m. Lando Norris (McLaren) and Alexander Albon (Red Bull) are the first to go out for an installation lap, under a cloudy sky. The drivers conduct a few practice starts at the pit exit.

Robert Kubica (Williams) drove very little during the first two practice sessions. Not in the seat for free practice 1, he quickly crashed in free practice 2. As a result, the Pole is taking full advantage of every minute of this third session and sets the first benchmark time at 1:14.407 then 1:13.998.

His time is quickly beaten by Carlos Sainz Jr. (McLaren) with 1:11.058 then 1:10.758. The two drivers are the only ones to have completed a full lap in the first quarter-hour.

That’s the moment when the others start to come out. Daniel Ricciardo (Renault) takes the lead with 1:10.577, a position taken over by his teammate Nico Hülkenberg with 1:10.276. The first set of times from the big teams sees Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) take the lead with 1:09.562. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) waited twenty-five minutes to set a time… and places himself in the lead with 1:09.527 then 1:09.063. At the same time, Lewis Hamilton manages to improve his time on his third lap with the same tires, three-tenths behind Verstappen.

At mid-session, the Dutchman leads the proceedings ahead of Hamilton, Bottas, Leclerc, Vettel, and Albon. Pierre Gasly (Toro Rosso) sets the best time of the others at 956 milliseconds behind Verstappen, ahead of Hukenberg, Norris, and Kvyat.

Ferrari fits a new set of tires 23 minutes before the end of the session. Leclerc sets the fastest time at 1:08.611, 53 thousandths ahead of his teammate Vettel and more than four-tenths ahead of Verstappen.

18 minutes from the end, it’s Mercedes’ turn to attempt a new time. Hamilton puts everyone in agreement with 1:08.320, three-tenths ahead, while Bottas makes two mistakes and only finishes sixth.

Only Red Bull is missing, coming out with ten minutes remaining. Verstappen achieves the second-fastest time, 26 thousandths behind Hamilton, while Alexander Albon reaches the fifth position, 827 thousandths behind.

In the end, Ferrari seems a bit behind when approaching the qualifications, three-tenths behind. It’s worth noting that the Italians do not have the best top speed.

No significant off-track excursions occurred in this session. Only Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso) cut a corner, complaining about the brakes. Romain Grosjean (Haas) had stability issues, as did Daniel Ricciardo (Renault).

The qualifying session will start at 7 p.m., apparently with sunshine.

Results of Free Practice 3 of the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix: